So, do you have experience with the SB-600, visumax? I just replaced my broken SB-600 with another one (and didn't realize just how battered my old one was until I opened the new one), but do you think it's worth the extra money?

No, I do not have any experience with the 600, but in most ways the 700 is better than the 900. I don't know what a 600 costs, but I would guess that the 700 is better. It is $329 which compared to all the expensive Nikon stuff I have purchased, seems like a bargain. My only issue is that they are not (yet) working with PocketWizards, which just released their Nikon product. As a beta tester, I have used these for several months with 900's and they are awesome.

The SB-600 I got was $230. From the specs, the 600 has a slightly higher guide number, no overheating protection (I've never had a problem), no beam shaping, no auto recognition of the filters, and a more frustrating interface. I wanted to save the $100 toward the next lens I want, though. I still wanted eventually to get an SB-900, but if you like the 700 better then maybe I'll have to rethink.

Well, after ordering the SB-900 from Amazon, then 2 days later ordering the SB-700 when it became available with plans of sending the 900 back for refund, I've decided to keep the SB-900 and send the 700 back. The only thing that I'm not crazy about is the weight. Aside from that, I think the build quality of the SB-900 is superior to the 700 in many ways. I like the solid buttons instead of the plasticy sliders on the 700. The control wheel is firmer and more solid feeling on the 900 and the swivel head is more solidly constructed on the 900. The swivel head on the 700 is kind of loose. I don't know if they're all that way but this one is.

The "ON" dial/button on the 700 is more difficult to manipulate for me when turning it to REMOTE and MASTER mode than on the 900. The switch is flatter on the 700 which makes it more difficult for fingers to capture it. In REMOTE mode I actually triggered the SB-900 to flash from around a corner but failed to trigger the SB-700 to flash from around that corner in the same position. Once again, I don't know if all SB-700s are like that but if so, that could affect some lighting creativity.

Even though the SB-900 is more expensive I think it's value and quality are closer to the price of this speedlight than the SB-700 is to its price. I don't know if any of this has to do with the SB-700 being made in China vs. the SB-900 being made in Japan. Not gonna go there.

In real life, at least mine, I know the SB-900 is probably more flash than I'd need but I feel it has better quality per doller spent and who knows what projects I might be lassoed into shooting in the future.

I have two each of the SB900s and the SB800s and like the 900s for the switches and the 800s for the way they just keep shooting and shooting without any overheating issues. The 900 will heat up with rapid firing and low apertures and low ISOs.

You can defeat the circuitry that cuts off the speedlight due to overheating in the menu, but that would seem unwise to me. Others have done it with no consequences. I'm chicken.

Again, the overheating may never raise its head if you don't heavy rapid firing - so if that's not your style, I really wouldn't worry about it.

Why would nikon release the 700 with less power then the 600? I've seen it and the menu is nice some of the new tricks would be neat dependent on use but I mostly shoot with radio poppers off camera, the added strengh would be nice...except I did have a slight meltdown on a 600 recently:(.

I know, right? And that was the angle at which I thought the D7000 would best show up. It's there, just... dark. The Lumix doesn't hold itself down to the D7K. It was the first time I held it in over two months and I felt like a champion body builder picking it up the thing was so light, lol.

Gareth said:
the 900 is stronger, bigger and great for off camera, but many people have had issues with it bending their hotshoes on d700's (and therefore everything smaller than a d3/s).

From the few threads I've read it seems that this is associated with chronic twisting of the flash head while holding the camera body. A busy photographer probably does this a lot. I'm very new to using this speedlight but on the 1st day I'd already figured out that I wont be twisting the flash head without holding the lower body of the flash unit anyway. Twisting the head puts a shearing type force on the hotshoe that many people wouldn't think about til it's too late.

Hi every1. My question is slightly off-topic, but...
I'm going to buy SB-700 and found one guy selling his month-old flash for 75% of SB700's street price in our country. Seeam a bit strange to my, so I'm asking for advice, what should I check before buying this.
//Used Google. I'm interested in SB700 related issues, but naming general issues would be fine either.
Thank you.

Just bought myself a brand new SB-700, and while playing around with it, I've noticed only one (left-hand side) AF-assist illumination beam lights up, and only get a vertical beam pattern. Can anyone confirm this is how it should be?

Rx4Photo said:
From the few threads I've read it seems that this is associated with chronic twisting of the flash head while holding the camera body. A busy photographer probably does this a lot. I'm very new to using this speedlight but on the 1st day I'd already figured out that I wont be twisting the flash head without holding the lower body of the flash unit anyway. Twisting the head puts a shearing type force on the hotshoe that many people wouldn't think about til it's too late.

Rx

nice call Rx, this should be posted to the tips/camera care section for the handling of the flash.

"Hello Everyone, I have a weird issue, when shooting in manual mode with my d7k and sb700 attached the speedlight fires 3 times and then fires again with the body and takes the picture. When I shoot in auto mode both body and speedlight fire at the same time only once. Does anyone know a setting that can be adjusted so that camera and speedlight fires only once in Manual mode.